Struggles we have had and will have
by Fisheater4
Summary: Exploring the surface and freeing mankind from their prison to pave the way for even greater heights is a great and noble cause. But why 'Frisk' of all people? And why does our King insist that she leaves with that damn thing? Though something in the back of my head is bugging me... Will this young innocent youth ever come back the same from this experience? (updated)
1. Greetings

_Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: HUMANS and MONSTERS  
One day, war broke out between the two races.  
After a long battle, the monsters were victorious.  
They sealed the humans underground with a magic spell._

_The monsters finally had peace.  
They were free.  
They were hopeful.  
They were saved._

_The last remaining sorcerer ruled over the Underground.  
He promised to free them.  
He gave them hope.  
_

__He promised to save them all.__

__Many years later...  
__

* * *

Frisk laid there in a deep sleep until a sudden cold draught swept through the cave, waking her up shivering from the chill. She wouldn't have minded an extra layer or two, but now it was far too late for that.

She rubbed her eyes and yelped slightly from her back pain; she had slept on a cold cave floor covered with vines of all sizes, though it wasn't the worst as she had to make do with worse before. Shielding her eyes from the unbearable light entering the cave, she turned to inspect her surroundings to find anything of use.

She was quite surprised to see the place filled with every kind of junk possibly imagined; there were cartwheels, glass vials with unknown substances, locked chests and random pieces of furniture. Whoever dumped the stuff sure made use of every conceivable space possible, though to how far it extends into the cave was a mystery. Frisk thought that whoever was dumping their rubbish had a serious issue on hand that needed to be resolved. Surely they didn't have any problems with storage up top, what with all the free space and land they had to roam about now then...

What also caught her attention was the barrier that seemed to emit a light glow every now and then in a pattern. She had never seen it from this side but it looked identical either way. It was the wall that prevented from two different worlds to collide with each other, and it seemed destined to stay... for now. How she even traversed was unbeknownst to her. The scientists were reluctant to give the full details or even a quick summery from what she remembered.

Speaking of which, she was the one whom they picked... they gave vague reasons why they did, with Frisk just going along with it. She didn't really have a say in it anyway and had wanted to go out and explore, just not alone... or in the cold.

She had recognised a bag resting on the ground, it containing vital information and supplies. But since she woke up she felt a constant dull pain on the side of her head. It was tolerable just, but it did serve as a constant reminder of her deed.

Undoing the straps of the bag to review the content, she felt as though someone... or something was watching her every movement. After a brief moment, she turned to look behind her and reacted with a mix of astonishment and fear.

_"_**Uh... Howdy! My name is Asriel. What's yours?" **__a child-like voice asked echoing.

"My name... my name is Frisk", Frisk replied trying to keep her composure, "wha-... what are you exactly?"

As she took a step back, she wanted to look away but was amazed at the sight. A strange humanoid goat creature thing was staring right at her. They appeared to be covered in white fur from top to bottom, possessed not hands, but something more akin to paw-like hands with tiny claws, along with fangs protruding from their muzzle and a pair of floppy ears resting on either side of their head. Frisk also noticed that this... thing had a tuft of white fur on their head which seemed to act as hair.

But strangely enough, she barely feel threatened at all despite being ambushed. This Asriel was about her height and looked fairly harmless... well as harmless as an anthropocentric goat creature

could get.

The pair looked at each other in awkward silence for what felt like hours, until Frisk found something odd about Asriel. He was partially see through like a ghost or a phantom. She picked up a stone and chucked it towards him. Asriel didn't budge and the stone went straight through him.

_"_**What are you doing?"**__ Asriel asked confused from Frisk's action.

"Am I still asleep or have I joined the after life? You're not human or even whole for that matter!"

The slightly dull pain she had previously felt intensified. She caressed the side of head in vain of soothing it to no avail. But she felt an earring, which was strange as she never had or could wear a pair, but yet there she was wearing a singular earring of all things.

_"_**I wouldn't touch that... I think we're in this together until we can find another way. If you were to remove it... you would probably cause serious damage to our combined souls."**__

An earring. Of all things they sent her with and it would seem it was giving her the most almighty headache.

And what was the talk about souls? Frisk believed it to be complete rubbish, but she distinctively remembered someone resembling a magician talk extensively about 'spirits' and magic and such. She had just woken up at the start, so best not to mess up things from the start she thought. There would be time for questions later on. Such as why he already possessed some kind of knowledge on the damn earring. But not now...

She started rummaging through the bag, but noticed that Asriel was looking intently at her which put her off.

"You want to ask something?"

_"_**No... but you look like someone I-uh..."**__ he replied trailing off.

His eyes strayed from Frisk, but she had noticed something off-putting about his phrasing. He would've been better not saying anything but now he's caught her attention on that. Other than that she had slightly slanted eyes alongside chestnut brown shoulder-length hair, so nothing outstanding there. But she did remember people commenting on her red eyes, as they were apparently extremely rare. It was said only a couple people were know to possessed those type of eyes. Lucky her.

Other than that for clothing she just had a leather tunic with thin clothes beneath to wear a some rudimentary gloves.

She looked upon Asriel and saw that he wore what looked like a very nice stripped woollen sweater and pair of trousers though no shoes, giving way to paws instead of feet. Alongside with his fur, Frisk asked herself if he was warm with all of those layers. Though now she thought about it, he was some kind of phantom or ghost or whatever so he wouldn't feel it anyway.

By then, she had pulled out stuff from the top, which consisted of a crude map, several bottles of clear liquid and a worn book. She had noticed at the bottom they at least provided her with the means of defending herself. At least she wasn't completely unprepared but still wasn't looking forward to it.

She laid out the map and Asriel came over with a keen interest in it; good timing as Frisk needed some help locating some key locations anyway. He approached and pointed at a dot with writing above it.

_"_**That's Snowdin! M-... The King of all monsters named it. And it's not too far off from the Capital."**__

"The Capital? As in 'The Capital city' or just_ '___The Capital'___?"_

_"_**The name is just 'The Capital'".**__

How unimaginative could one be?

"And now you're going to tell me that he named Snowdin aren't you?"

_"_**He... He did actually."**__

Frisk was about to let a slight chuckle with a sudden realisation hit her.

"Wait. That means Snowdin is-"

_"_**Not all the time, but most of the year..."**__

Her heart sank as she rushed to the entrance of the cave, with Asriel following and watching over. Absolutely every square inch of ground was covered in think snow, as if a white sheet covered the landscape. She gazed upon it for she had never seen the surface before; the world seem to stretch indefinitely with no end in sight which was a sharp contrast to the world she and her people were confined to.

Thick forests lied at the bottom of the mountain, separating her from her destination. She could just barely see far off in the distance what looked like houses and such.

But with her current equipment, she'd be lucky to only lose a couple of toes from frostbite. She just so happened to be sent up top during winter. She had heard of seasons, but seemingly they must have lost track of them... or simply not care. This was going to hard. And cold.

"Not much else to do here and I've barely the rations to wait out the cold..." Frisk thought loudly, "Well, no real choice then."

_"_**It shouldn't take too long. I guess I'll act as some sort of guide for you, heh..." **___Asriel said trying to be positive._

Frisk nodded, and left the cave entrance with her belongings and braved the cold with Asriel following her.

The last chance for humanity had departed.


	2. Outsider

_"This great meeting is gathered here tonight, to hear the recent actions of our King. We have finally sent a suitable candidate to send over the top. The King does not lie and would never lie! He's predicted that this determined and brave soul would come back and traverse the barrier! We have no reason to doubt him; throughout our times of suffering and great turmoil, he has consistently done everything possible to improve our lives._

_We care not whether we're freed tomorrow or at the end of time, all we care is that win we will because no power can hold back the will within us all! Let us pray to their success and begin to pave the way for mankind. Soon we will be able to realise our full potential as one, united people!"_

_The massive crowd that had gathered nodded silently and prayed together; they all crossed themselves and wished upon every good for her. Everyone had faith in the King, they knew deep down that he wasn't lying. All they could do now was wait. For how long? No one knew._

_Just as long before everything plunges into chaos once more.  
_

* * *

Hearing the snow crunch under her boots brought her back fond memories of the times she would spend playing with her siblings when the snow arrived at random intervals. They would spend all day outside getting up to mischief. The workplaces would be closed temporarily, so everyone could get on the action.

But this was no game, there was no time for mischief. She would have to traverse through the countryside and the forest to make it to the first town. Ill-prepared, she already could feel the cold through her clothes, making her shiver.

_**"I suggest following the path, I know for sure that it will lead to Snowdin!" **_Asriel said, seemingly more confident in his speech.

At first, Frisk couldn't see any kind of path, the snow must have covered it. It didn't help that the snow made it painful to look at the ground from the unbearable light that it reflected.

"What path? I can't see it."

_**"Uh... maybe just following me will be best then." **_he said attempting to resolve the issue of the 'invisible path'._**  
**_  
Frisk caved in and just opted to trail behind him. Though she slowed down to admire the view on the way with Asriel following suit. The pair eventually stopped with they both got a full view of the distant town; the mountains forming said valley made everything... smaller and more compact, even with the open sky.  
She didn't like that, it reminded her of the place they had to call home.

_**"Wh-where do you live Frisk? Surely you don't reside in that cave where we just met right?"**_

Frisk was reluctant to answer, but knowing that met for the first time in the said cave, it would be pretty hard to come up with a convincing story; it would have demanded a lot of time and energy, things she didn't currently have at the moment.

"I come from the Underground... behind that wall, we call the barrier... after the Great War, the King of all monsters trapped us in there after consuming seven humans..."

Asriel gave her a complete look of disbelief and confusion.

_**"Really? I-I'm sure he would never do such a thing! He's one of the kindest monsters ever..." **_Asriel said with conviction, a first for him, whilst Frisk gave him a confused look, wondering what he meant exactly.

"Wait. So he's still alive?" Frisk felt stupid asking but wanted an answer.

_**"I'm sure he is, after all, he's a boss monster.**_"

"I..uh-don't know what that means, does he have superpowers?" she said attempting to be humorous.

_**"Somewhat I guess... but boss monsters live indefinitely! At least until..., they have children..."**_ Asriel finished as his voice trailed off and looked away slightly, again, with Frisk just left to process what was just told. So they were special kinds of monsters who possessed different abilities; at least that was useful to know.

Fully focusing on the view, she could just make the small town from where she was standing; it didn't look too big, nor too small, but she did notice the lack of any significant tall or high rise buildings and smoke. Then again it seemed the monsters had all the space in the world, quite literally, to build houses and anything else, unlike in the Underground.

Frisk gestured to Asriel to move on, and, after a bit of time, arrived at the entrance of the forest. With slight hesitation, Frisk entered with Asriel trailing next to her. At least the path was somewhat visible.

The pair entered the forest in complete silence, with their view of the town disappearing. Not knowing what to expect, she trod carefully as not to trip on anything, as well as ducking out of the way of any stray branches. She took her time again to inspect her surroundings as forests were... unfamiliar. Asriel waited patiently but didn't seem to mind, even though they were on a timer.

This was definitely unfamiliar territory to her now for sure.

"By the way, you said I looked like someone you knew. Am I not the first human you've met?", Frisk asked, feeling slightly weirded out that she 'looked like' someone Asriel knew personally.

_**"N-no... no you're not the first one..."**_ he said now losing much of the enthusiasm he had gathered, _**"However, it looks like nothing has really changed on the surface; it's as if everything only happened yesterday."**_

"Yesterday? What do you mean?" she asked now intrigued by what he had said.

_**"Well, I remember there being quite a few human Kingdoms, and people from both races, just... hanging out and getting along with each other you could say I suppose heh..."**_, he responded with a small smile on his face.

"But then... what went wrong if everyone were on good terms? Surely something catastrophic must have happened right?" Frisk asked again, now forgotten the point of the first question; that could be dealt with later, this was a more pressing matter. Asriel gave her a look that spelled out 'I'm not sure about this', but saw that there was no turning back.  
_**  
"A...a human got lost and was taken care of by the King and Queen of the Monster Kingdom, but some humans... thought they got kidnapped an-and I think it all went downhill from there..."**_

At first, the story sounded like complete baloney, but Frisk knew full well that there were always some humans ready to do anything to gain even more power, whatever the means possible.  
It would make sense then that war quickly ensued. It was one trait she despised about humans, the fact that some would go as far as to start a war. His story didn't sound that implausible, so she at least she had the foundation of what may have happened exactly.

In the meantime, she began to wonder what life was like for the species that had locked her own down in the Underground.  
It looked like she was about to find out.

_**"Is... is there something wrong Frisk?"**_ Asriel asked in a genuine caring tone.

"N-no, just thinking about stuff..." Frisk replied as she gestured again to continue the route.

The pair moved on, taking their time along the way, slowly following the path that should lead to the town. Frisk did ask herself if other's could see her companion, just out of curiosity, but now something else was bothering her.

"Actually I take that back, why do I suddenly smell fish? We're nowhere close to a river right?"

_**"I wouldn't know Frisk,"**_ Asriel answered shrugging his shoulders _**"I can't smell anything, maybe someone is not too far away."**_

"HEY PUNK! What the hell are you doing out here at this time!"

Taken completely by surprise, Frisk froze with fear and slowly turned around, only to be presented with a towering figure wearing full iron armour, complete with a helmet that seemed to possess a long red plume trailing behind in the wind. Their identity was completely hidden, with Frisk left confused to if this person was a human or a monster. Though now she was right in front of this person, the smell of fish grew more intense; maybe the smell has something to do with them.

"I said WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? Has the cold gone to your head or what!?"

"I-um sorry... I was just looking for the town called Snowdin... I'm not from around here." Frisk answered, desperately trying to keep calm.

"A visitor? HAH! At least you were on the right track to Snowdin! Well, where are you from?"

"I'm from the mountain in a place called the Underground." Frisk mindlessly blurted out, only to realise what she said. Asriel facepalmed, though the mysterious knight seemed to be oblivious to his presence, proving her theory.

"The Underground? The Mountain? I've never heard any of those places!", she exclaimed with Frisk worried that she dug herself in a hole. Asriel could be seen with their face buried in their hands, looking through the gaps in-between his fingers, just as worried as Frisk.

"They do sound like names King Asgore would have given I suppose..." she said tapping her chin.

Frisk and Asriel both breathed a sigh of relief, happy that they narrowly dodged the issue. They could at least continue on their journey.

"King Asgore... the King of all monsters right?"

"OH COURSE IT'S HIM! WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE?!"

The figure let out a loud laugh, with Frisk chuckling along, pretending she just said some kind of stupid joke. Asriel just gave a 'roll with it' look, to which Frisk nodded silently.

"And you are...?"

"Undyne, CAPTAIN of the royal guard, patrolling for any... 'potential dangers'...", they said, with their enthusiasm degrading at the last few words of her sentence.

"So... you were saying the town is this way?" Frisk asked pointing towards the path.

"Yeah! But before you go I want to see how strong you are! You look like a capable fighter and I haven't had a challenge since forever!"

Before Frisk even had time to object, Undyne had summoned out of nowhere a light blue spear in her hand. Strangely enough, they had also decided to remove their helmet for seemingly no reason at all, except maybe to show off a bit.

This time Frisk was confronted with one of the most terrifying things she had ever seen; a set of long razor protruding sharp yellow teeth, accompanied with a pair of yellow eyes giving a menacing glare, alongside with blue scales like that of a fish acting as skin and a pair of fins on each side of her head. It was also revealed that the plume on the helmet, was in actual fact, her long red hair tied in a long ponytail.

At least it would explain why this person smelt like rank fish.

"What's wrong punk? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

_Well as a matter of fact..._

Frisk hadn't realised that they were completely silent and unresponsive, now worried that she might have to fight.

"I'm not in the mood for fighting and uh..."

_**"It's becoming late,**_" Asriel interjected to help out Frisk at improvising.

"Yeah it's starting to be quite late, sooo I'll be on my way and maybe we can catch up lat-"

"NOT SO FAST", the fish monster interrupted, "I've been training on my new attack for a couple of months now and I need someone to test it on. Unfortunately, no other monster will help, because of course... THEY ALL KNOW I'M THE STRONGEST! FUHUHUHUHUH!

Frisk felt a tug in her chest. After a few seconds, she was presented with a red heart emitting a bright red light, encompassing what seemed to be a much smaller white upside-down heart. Frisk gazed at it with wonder, with countless questions about filling her head about it; What was it? Was it their soul, their spirit or something? And what's that white heart doing inside?

_**"Uh, Frisk... I th-think it might be time to run for your life..."**_

Frisk averted their gaze from the heart saw that Undyne had a dumbfounded expression on their face. They too seemed confused by what they saw.

"What... IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" they shouted out angrily.

Taking Asriel's advice, they immediately ran away as fast as possible as if their life depended on it, resulting in the heart disappearing. The figure stood still, shocked by what they had witnessed until they came to the simple conclusion.

"COME BACK HERE HUMAN! YOUR CONTINUED EXISTENCE IS A THREAT TO EVERYONE ALIVE."

Frisk ran as fast as they possibly could, but was still able to hear the footsteps behind approaching fast; somehow even a full suit of armour they were catching up to her.

Asriel was up ahead, giving Frisk directions to follow

_**"Come this way, the other way leads to a dead-end!"**_

Left with no other choice but to follow his words of advice, she took the turn and continued running.

"I'M DOING EVERYONE A FAVOR BY DOING THIS SO STOP RUNNING AWAY!"

Undeterred by their words, Frisk ignored them and continued following Asriel, giving her the slight edge she needed to stay just so slightly ahead. Asriel would give directions, Frisk would follow his advice and Undyne would keep getting more and more frustrated, as Frisk would continually evade her at the last possible seconds.

"RIGHT! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"

She looked behind for a split second, only to see that the fish monster had sent a spear towards her lower half, leaving her with no time to react. The spear painfully cut her leg badly, resulting in her crying out in pain and collapsing onto the ground. She turned herself over onto her back and could see the fish monster slowly approaching her, spear in hand. They barely looked exhausted whilst Frisk felt as though they were about to die out from exhaustion.

Frisk reached out for the bag and shuffled through it until they grabbed hold of what they wanted.

_**"Wh-...what are you going to do?"**_ , Asriel asked in a worried tone.

"Something..." she paused, catching her breath, "I have should have done at the start.", she muttered coldly, still in severe pain.

She pulled it out and turned the safety off.

"It's time to end this human, ONCE AND FOR FALL!"

The fish monster leaped at Frisk with her spear in hand and with a crazed look in their eyes. It looked everything was about to end abruptly.

Frisk held the pistol in hand, pointed at Undyne and pulled the trigger. It went with a bang and the recoil made her lose her grip on the weapon.

The bullet straight went through Undyne's left eye as she collapsed on top of Frisk, unconscious.  
Frisk struggled to move them off of them after several attempts until Asriel approached, shaken by what just happened.

_**"A-are y-you al-lright Fr-Frisk?"**_

Asriel could clearly see that she wasn't and was currently in a lot of pain. Unsure of what to do, he attempted to help lift Undyne off her; he would just pass through them.  
_**  
"No no no! This can't happen. I won't allow this to happen!"  
**_  
Out of the blue, Frisk was surrounded by a green aura and green streaks appeared on her body, stretching seemingly from their face, all the way to the tip of their fingers. She felt... powerful, healthier.  
With ease, she slowly pushed the fish monster off her and got back up easily with no pain whatsoever. She inspected her wound; it was still there though some sort of bright green patch covered it. She could still feel that damn earring and started to feel light-headed, but concluded that the light-headiness came from Asriel, not the object in question. She inspected the green streaks that ran down her limbs; they seemed pulsed with her heartbeat.

"Asriel? Are you seeing this? Asriel?"

She turned and looked for Asriel who seemed to have disappeared out of thin air. Worried, Frisk called out their name again.

"Asriel? Are you her-"  
_**  
"It... It worked!"**_ Asriel interrupted, though now it sounded like he was inside her head.

"How... Why are you doing this? I could have done it by myself!" she snapped out.

_**"Yo-you looked like you needed help, s-so I did everything I could..."**_ It was clear in his voice that he was hurt by what she said. Frisk realised what they said and sighed. Indeed without Asriel's help, she would probably still be stuck under Undyne's insanely heavy armour, not to mention that she would have great difficulty walking. She sat against a tree trunk and thought about what to say.

"Look, I'm sorry for snapping at you, but... I get chased into unknown territory by a crazed fish who was seemingly determined to kill me, only for her to collapse on top of me with her weight AND armour. I... thought I could do everything myself. Will... will you forgive me?"

Silence followed, with her wound visibly healing bit by bit; it looked like it should finish in no time at all.

_**"Yes, of course, I forgive you!"**_ Frisk could clearly hear the enthusiasm coming back to his voice and a small smile formed on her face. Though now she had to focus on the subject of Undyne. It would seem that in their little moment of reconciliation, the pair had forgotten about them.

"What about them? Are they going to be fine?"

_**"Well they haven't started turning to dust yet, so no bu-"**_

"Wait, monsters turn to dust when they die?" , Frisk interrupted "That's... weird."

She approached Undyne and dragged her to a tree and rested them against it. She deduced that it would probably be too risky to bring them in Snowdin, people would ask why she was now missing an eye.

"Well, if monsters do turn to dust, then killing them seemed to be the way to go. There would be no evidence right? It would just be blown by the wind."

_**"No no no, please no more unnecessary violence!"**_

Frisk ignored their plead and walked to the pistol and reached for it. Asriel protested but she knew he couldn't do anything about it. After all, he was just a sort of ghost, he wouldn't be able to do anything.

They pointed the pistol at Undyne's head but found themselves unable to physically pull the trigger again. Their hand and fingers were completely stiff, as well as feeling the almighty headache slowly coming back. The pain in their leg was starting to come back and struggled to put any weight on it.

"This... this is your doing isn't it?" she asked, clenching her teeth. No response came out, but she came to the realisation that Asriel was partially in control. She struggled on, but quickly gave up and chucked the pistol into the bag. She slowly felt better, though annoyed that Asriel had prevented her from killing off her attacker.

"I hope most monsters aren't like them, otherwise this is going to be rough." She said as she picked up her belongings and left the scene of the combat."

_**"You might want to wipe off the dust off your chest..."**_

Indeed there was a mix of blood and dust present on the top half of her tunic. She gave a quick shake, shaking most of the dust off, with the blood mostly gone too. It was a good thing Asriel noticed, that would have been interesting to explain to anyone.

"Speaking of chests, why was there a heart that just magically appeared in front of me earlier?"

_**"Why, that's your soul, the very culmination of your being!"**_ Asriel responded, _**"it comes in multiple colours, yours being red, representing determination."**_

"Huh, interesting... What's all the business with that weird white upside-down soul then?"

_**"That's... my soul..."**_

Frisk took a moment to register what he had said; her soul was red and was shaped like a heart, and she had his soul inside of hers? Confused, Frisk decided it would be better to ask questions later on, now she had to get to Snowdin.

After a short walk, Frisk was in view of the town of Snowdin and gave a wary smile; she was about to meet a whole lot more of monsters, but how would they react to her? Undyne didn't realise she was human until they pulled out her soul. Perhaps she could play on that for a while whilst attempting to find a solution. She would just have to make sure no other monsters decide to fight her so her soul wouldn't spring up.

Frisk suddenly felt back to normal and could no longer see an aura surrounding her or any green marks or streaks.

_**"Don't worry, I've healed you up!"  
**_  
Frisk gave Asriel a smile, in which he smiled back. She could no longer see any traces of cut on her leg.

"Wait, was that some sort of healing magic you used on me then?" she asked, now knowing that monsters seem to have the ability to summon magical weapons.

Asriel nodded, with Frisk learning more and more about monsters. Interestingly, they could use their healing magic on anyone, including humans.

Frisk didn't think too hard about it and entered the town of Snowdin. Her adventure would truly begin now.


	3. Unusual friendly faces

"_So... you must be the chosen, 'Frisk' I presume?"_

_Frisk said nothing. The cold air and the indescribable stench of... something... didn't help. She stood silent, waiting for someone, something to send her on her way._

_Best get it done now, at least she said her farewells._

"_The quiet type heh?" The figure asked bearing a white lab coat and holding a clipboard,"Can't say I blame you, I probably wouldn't want to get sent up top either..."_

_Frisk stood silent, fiddling with a strap of her bag. She truly didn't want to do this, but she was told it would be for the betterment of mankind, that she would be received as a national hero and immortalised in stories._

"_Oh what am I saying? I should be excited to get to the surface! Everyone should!"_

_His comment had no effect on Frisk, still silent. The figure sighed, took off his glasses and rub his eyes. He then gave a quick glance at her and walked over to a series of bookshelves._

"_I know I shouldn't probably do this, but...", he said as he took down what seemed a massive encyclopedia from a bookshelf, placing it on the table with a loud thud, "If we can win them over without having to fight, we... we might be able to coexist. Y-you know what this is... right?"_

_Frisk shook her read. She never really took to reading. Didn't see the appeal._

"_Well, it's everything humanity has achieved, anything you can imagine; art, music, technology, fashion history, everything in one book." He explained, flipping through what seemed like endless pages, until he reached the end. He sighed again._

"_Who am I kidding, they probably don't even speak the same language as us and I shouldn't have told you about this now..."_

_He sighed once more, unsure of what to do. He took a puff from his cigarette and wiped the sweat from his forehead with piece of cloth. Frisk looked back up at the person._

"_I-ll... I'll take it," Frisk said in a quiet voice "Might as-well have something to read I guess."_

_The person gave a small smile as they hesitantly handed the book to Frisk, who then struggled to find room in her backpack for it._

"_Do... do you really think I can do it?" Frisk asked, afraid of what was to come._

"_The King has predicted your arrival back here Frisk,"the figure answered in a calm voice as he put his glasses back on, "this is not the time to be defeatist. Everyone is counting on your success. All we can do is pray and wish you the best of luck. The barrier is on the other side of the lab, would you like me to accompany you?"_

_Frisk nodded slowly and followed the man. She had one more quick look at the object in her hand; something as insignificant as a weird green glowing earring was going to be enough to change history apparently, for the better or worse._

_She would make it back for sure, but in what state?_

"Say, this town must look fantastic when it's Christmas."

_**"Christmas?"**_ Asriel asked raising an eyebrow, trailing next to Frisk since they entered the town.

"I... never mind." Frisk sighed in frustration.

Strolling through the town, Frisk imagined every house covered in brightly coloured lights and baubles, complete with a tree somewhere in it's town-square, if it had one, decorated from top to bottom with bright, shiny and colourful baubles and tinsel It was one of the few times people would take a break from work and come celebrate a holiday together. Presents and wishes would be exchanged and everyone would have a good time. Even the King would come and drop off some wrapped up presents. It was a time for everybody to forget the ills, worries and contempt that plagued them.

"Also, this town looks ancient," Frisk muttered quietly, "when was this built?"

"_**I... don't know, but it doesn't look that ancient does it?"**_

"Well everything looks like it was constructed in the medieval ages no?" Frisk asked as she turned to Asriel.

"_**I uh... don't know what you mean, yes maybe? Everything looks normal to me."**_

For the time being, Frisk shrugged off his comment. Though she noticed the lack of peo-... of monsters in the streets.

"It's not that late is it?" she asked looking quickly at the sky, "It looks like it's just barely evening."

Not knowing what to say, Asriel just shrugged his shoulders. Maybe they were off somewhere else, or maybe they had to work long hours.

"Well, isn't there somewhere open or something just to stop for the night?"

Just as she finished her sentence, she noticed in the distance a small sign hanging from the wall, with what appeared to be writing on it.

"What does it say, I... can't see from here."

"_**I think it reads 'Grillby's Inn, Bar & Restaurant'.**_

"Huh, so the local pub then I guess."

Walking to the building, the tallest person she had probably ever seen stormed out of it, bearing what seemed very light weight armour, similar to Undyne's armour. She shuddered at the thought of his reaction to seeing a human. Then again the fish monster had no idea what a human looked liked, maybe she could slide through.

"SANS! Will you stop it with your puns!"

A second, much smaller figure stepped out, hands in pockets.

"aw come on bro. i'm just tryin' to be humerus."

"SANS!"

Frisk was presented with was seemed to be a pair of skeletons, both stank slightly of (what Frisk recognised) tobacco and alcohol, seemingly from what the other monsters in the pub have been consuming.

Nice to know humans and monsters had common 'pass times'.

The shouting skeleton far surpassed Undyne in height whilst the other one was just as tall as Frisk, bearing a blue fur coat, grey shorts and... _pink slippers? In this weather?_

She had also noticed that both skeletons barely resembled an actual human skeleton, with the taller one taking on a more 'skinny' figure with a thinner, taller skull, while the shorter one had a wider and shorter skull, a stupidly wide grin, and just looked fat... _somehow._

The taller skeleton turned towards Frisk and waved with a big smile.

"Wowie! What do we have here?! A visitor?!", he said loudly whilst posing heroically, "Well worry not, I, the Great Papyrus, will help you in any way possible!"

"It-it's very kind of you, but all I need is a place to rest and sle-"

"You can't stay in that grease-hole," Papyrus said at the top of his _lungs(?)_ interrupting her, "Well, do not waver visitor, you can spend the night with us!"

Frisk was gobsmacked by the skeleton's kindness; they had just met and he was willing to let a stranger sleep in his house to avoid the 'grease hole'. Frisk realised that humans functioned somewhat like this too; they're some people out to hunt you and others ready to welcome a complete outsider into their home.

Maybe both species had more in common than they would like to admit.

"uh paps, i dont think we even have room..." Sans said, his grin dissipating slightly.

_Way to damper the mood..._

"Of course we do Sans! Where else do you think Undyne sleeps when she comes over!?"

Undyne? Oh no. She would just have to play smart.

"if you say so paps. so whats your name pal? i'm sans. sans the skeleton and this is my brother, papyrus." the shorter skeleton said as he stretched out his arm for a handshake.

"Frisk. My name is Frisk." She said as she shook his skeletal hand. A sudden raspberry seemingly appeared and stopped after a few seconds. Frisk was left completely confused and dumbstruck by what just happen, only to break out of it when she heard Asriel laughing uncontrollably who was originally waiting patiently for the group to move on.

_Great, another one amused by toilet humour._

Frisk gave a swift glare at Asriel, rolling on the ground before focusing back onto Sans.

"Really? A whoopee cushion?" Frisk exclamed in annoyance, "Think I'll brave your puns any day of the week."

"well thats some motivation now." Sans replied with his grin restored to it's stupidly wide self.

"Oh no, don't encourage him please..." Papyrus said in desperation, covering his face with his hand.

"dont worry pal, i know a shortcut to our home."

"SANS! We are not using one of your 'shortcuts', we're barely even a minute away from home!"

"if you say so paps, but i've done a skele-ton of work today so i might have an early night."

"SANS!", Papyrus shouted even louder than before.

Frisk was now laughing too, not so much from Sans's puns, but more from his brother's reaction. She barely knew what to make of the skeleton brothers. Papyrus from the outside seemed to be one of the kindest beings Frisk had ever met whislt Sans just made bad puns getting reactions from his brother.

As the group finally moved on with Papyrus leading the way, Frisk finally clicked something that seemed fairly obvious; how do these skeletons eat? Or breath? Or even speak?

For now she would just have to indefinitely suspend her disbelief; after all her companion in this was a goat ghost thing and she barely made it out against an angry, magic spear wielding fish woman, why would talking skeletons be any stranger? Though it was probably best not to ask questions like that, as it would probably rouse suspicion.

"Sans, what do you for a living?" Frisk asked with genuine curiosity, having already guessed that Papyrus was a soldier or guard of some kind just from his armour.

"i'm a judge pal, though not a lot of stuff goes on these days."

"That's only because you're a lazybones and you knew it was a job that demanded the bare minimum brother!" Papyrus added in as the group arrived at the wooden house. Frisk gave a quick look at Sans who just shrugged in shoulders in response.

"Right! We're finally here!" Papyrus said in a heroic voice whilst getting his keys out and unlocking the door. "You can spend the night on the sofa, but if you wish I can give up my bed for you!"

"That's really kind Papyrus, but I'll just take the sofa, it's fine really, I don't want to burden you." Frisk replied still taken back by this skeleton's generosity and kindness. She didn't even any form of cash or money, so she would probably have to sleep on the streets if it wasn't for Papyrus. That was a bit of an oversight by _them_.

"NONSENSE!" Papyrus cried out, placing a hand on his _heart(?)_ with his cape flapping in the near-non existent wind, "Nothing is too much for the Great Papyrus, especially for anyone in need."

Frisk chuckled at his comment; his will to help others in need and flamboyant personality made it very hard not to fall under his charm, whilst his brother mainly stayed quiet with the stupid grin putting out puns here and there.

The group finally entered the house of the skeleton brothers. She actually looked forward to her first night on the surface.


	4. Cooking can make all the difference

"Make yourself at home Frisk! I'll go get change and I'll be right back!"

Frisk didn't really know what to expect from a home inhabited by monsters in what she saw as a weird primitive medieval-like town. The home, entirely made of wood, was decorated with various furniture and carpets giving off a nice warm, cosy feeling to it. Papyrus ran up the stairs and entered what was presumably his bedroom. Frisk gave a quick look around and her eyes immediately landed on the sofa. Asriel was already sitting on it, giving a friendly wave to her.

That brought a small smile on her face.

"hope you're aren't hungry pal, paps is cooking tonight."

"His cooking that bad?" ,Frisk asked as she turned back to face Sans.

"well he's been taking cooking classes with Undyne in his spare time, so he's on his way to making edible food."

Oh god.

"That's a bit mean. Surely this... Undyne must have improved his cooking right?"

Sans shrugged his shoulders, "heh maybe. but she has a tendency of burning her house down so i guess they can never finish preparing a meal."

"Wha-... Really?" Frisk asked in complete disbelief. How could someone be as reckless as to burn an entire house down? Then again this was the same monster that had an extremely loud and impulsive personality and that chased her through the valley effortlessly with a crazed look in their eyes. After that it didn't sound that unreasonable that Undyne would _somehow _set fire to her own house.

Frisk now pondered on wherever to share as what she understood was "forbidden knowledge". Maybe she could try enlightening monsters by starting with someone that seemed to be the most open and understanding.

"I-... I could help with his cooking _maybe_?"

Sans shrugged his shoulders again, "be my guest ,im sure Papyrus would appreciate it. i'll be in my room if you need me."

Frisk nodded and walked over to the sofa and dumped her bag she been carrying all day long on it.

"_**Are you sure about this?"**_ Asriel asked in an uncertain tone.

"I'm sure I'm capable of helping someone cook something," Frisk replied, "the question is 'what' though. It can't be something too hard or that needs too many ingredients..."

Frisk opened her bag and, with great force, pulled out the massive book she'd been carrying and placed it on a sofa cushion.

"_**Did... did you really carry that and everything else in it?" **_Asriel asked nearly speechless at how much Frisk had really been lugging around throughout the journey.

"Heh, it's not that much really", Frisk responded, with a small chuckle "Now let's see if there's something in here that could be good."

Frisk rapidly flipped through the book with Asriel watching, until she stopped at a page with a picture she recognised.

"What about spaghetti? Do you think that should do it?"

"_**Spaghetti?"**_ Asriel asked with confusion in his voice.

Frisk sighed; why did she even ask these type of questions to Asriel?

"Fine then," Frisk said as she rotated the book around so Asriel could have a better view of the page, "Is this better?"

"_**Spaghetti. Pasta made in solid strings. Varies in size. Especially popular in the Euro-Roman descended communities."**_

Frisk eagerly waited for a response from Asriel about his opinion, though he took his time reading the rest of the page.

"_**I don't know... but it does look good."**_

"That's all I needed to hear."

All of a sudden, a door swing could be heard and Frisk turned around. Papyrus, who previously looked quite intimidating with his armour, was now wearing a giant white apron with it written 'cool dude' on it and what looked like some sort of chef hat. All he needed now was some sort of moustache to look the part.

"Guessing by the apron, you're cooking tonight then aren't you?"

"Yes! But do not waver! I have been taking cooking classes with none other than the captain of the Royal Guards herself!" ,Papyrus proudly said striking a heroic pose.

Sans really wasn't joking. Frisk didn't fancy possibly ending up fleeing a burning building so she went ahead with her plan.

"Actually... I have this dish which I think you might enjoy, it's a... delicacy from where I come from." Frisk said as she handed the book over to Papyrus with the corresponding page.

"Really? Let me see!"

Papyrus held the book and began to read the page intently. Frisk just waited for a response as Asriel was getting worried about something.

"_**What if he refuses?"**_

"Don't worry, I've got this." Frisk whispered back.

"You know... I've been feeling kind of homesick ever sin-"

"Well we can't have that!" Papyrus exclaimed before Frisk even had the chance to finish her sentence, "The Great Papyrus will prepare this great dish in honour of your arrival and to make you feel better! I will start preparing this 'Spaghetti' right away!"

Papyrus left the room for what seemed the kitchen with Frisk following him. He placed the book on the sideboard and started rummaging through the cupboards to find the ingredients. Not even 30 seconds later, all the necessary components were laid out on the table in a neat fashion.

"That was... quick." Frisk said amazed at his speed and commitment, "well... ready to get started?"

"Yes! I can't wait!"

"Oh and before you star-" Frisk started to say before Papyrus absolutely covered himself and the surrounding area in flour trying to lay it on the other counter with **dexterity and courage**.

Wait what?

"Oh I'm terribly sorry! It's just how Undyne taught me!" Papyrus said with the tone of his voice unchanged, "She has always done it with great force and determination... though now I think about I guess that is a pretty silly way of doing things..." He finished as he was wiping the flour off of him.

Frisk could clearly see how this could've quickly escalated after that. Good thing she was here to correct his mistakes.

"Well, what I was about to say is that you should forget everything that Undyne has taught you and try to follow my directions. Got it?"

Papyrus eagerly nodded and visibly was waiting for her next instructions. At he least he was willing to listen to her.

"Right, so get a bowl and put some flour in it with some salt-... "

The pair, after what seemed like hours (and probably was), worked and laboured hard for the perfect spaghetti, with Frisk guiding Papyrus and giving helpful tips along the way. Asriel just watched, as he could not do much else and was excited to see what was going to be the end result.

In the end, the kitchen still ended up in complete mess, with flour covering nearly all of the surface and mixing bowls filling up the sink.

"We're almost done! Now we just need to set a big pot of water to boil."

Papyrus marched to what looked like an oven, primitive albeit, only to stop, scratching their head _(somehow)_ at the though of something.

"You haven't seen the matches anywhere by chance have you?"

Matches. Theses magical beasts, living in primitive houses and possessing magic, used matches to start a fire. Really? What were they? Magic matches?

"Don't Worry! I'm sure my brother must have them! I'll be right back!"

He left Frisk to do the aforementioned, leaving her alone with Asriel.

"Well um... not too bored are you Asriel?"

"_**No on the contrary! My mum used to cook a lot. If you need a fire to start the oven I can help!"**_

"Really? How?"

Asriel slowly vanished and the cool, powerful familiar feeling came back. The green streaks came back as she looked down upon her arms.

"And what am I suppose to do exactly?"

"_**Try imagining you have a ball of fire in your hand."**_

Frisk was slightly perplexed at the instruction giving to her, but then again she never used magic before so she just went along with it.

Frisk tried to imagine a fireball suddenly appearing and... _nothing happened. _She tried again and again to no avail. Was magic really this difficult?

"_**All right then... how about you extend your hand and try to push something through your arm into your hand."**_

Still didn't work, only difference was that Frisk looked like a total plonker doing it. Good thing no one was around. For about a minute Frisk tried many different positions and shouts to get a fire going. Nothing worked.

"sorry if i'm interrupting anything, thought i drop by."

Frisk jumped back from the fright... _again._ Too concentrated on trying to use magic to notice it seemed.

"gee, sorry pal didn't mean to spook you to the bone. and put that fireball out before you set something on fire."

Frisk didn't even realise that they successfully summoned one in their hand.

Frisk gave a small nod as she tossed the fireball as she would a ball in the burner. The wood started to catch fire, signalling her success, though her hand was now empty and any attempts to summon a new one were unsuccessful.

Odd.

"Alright, well nearly everything's ready, we just need to for the water to boil."

"huh, really?" Sans asked, seemingly stunned that he might have his chance of eating home cooked food for the first time in a long time, "well i'd thought i would come and ask some questions about your origins 'cause it's part of my job... somewhat." Sans finished off with his eyes darting to the side, his grin unchanging.

"i'm going tibia honest, i thought you looked a little strange, but you've proven your worth to me and my brother pal." Sans said with sincerity "but one thing does catch my eye-sockets is that earring..."

Frisk gulped slightly; did he know about the whole earring thing?

"you do know you're supposed to wear a pair of them, not just one right?"

Sans just mentioning it made the dull pain return slightly. Frisk caressed the side of her in bid to soothe the pain.

"Yes of course! It's just that... this one is meant to be worn on it's own and it was a gift." Frisk said with a slight stutter.

"yeah fine then i guess i can understand that." Sans said as he brushed his skull with a hairbrush.

Wait wait what?! Seriously?

"but why were you 'green' all over when you had your fireball out? i don't know any other monsters capable of doing that."

Oh crap.

Frisk now had no answers left, and guessed that Sans, a judge of all things, wasn't going to let a blank pass.

"_**It's just the excess magic translating into a green aura."**_ Asriel said trying to save Frisks skin.

"Yeah what he said."

"uh, who you're talking about pal, it's just the both us."

Asriel gave the biggest facepalm possible as Frisk realised her mistake. She went out to correct it.

"What I mean is that is... is that it's just excess magic... flowing through me."

After her blunder, Frisk was worried about what Sans would have to say. His eye sockets went blank for slight moment before his pupils came back.

"welp, if you say so pal." He replied leaving the kitchen area to take a seat at the table.

Frisk and Asriel both breathed a sigh of relief, narrowly dodging the issue.

"I've finally found the matches!" Papyrus shouted as he emerged into the kitchen "Now, let's get this fire going shall we?"

"Huh, no need Papyrus, I already did it..." Frisk explained scratching the back of her head.

"Really!? Wowie! I didn't know you could use fire magic!" Papyrus replied ecstatically.

Frisk chuckled slightly at his comment. There was just something about him that made you want to stay by his side.

"Well, the spaghetti just needs to be boiled for about 7 minutes and then it should be done."

Frisk and Papyrus left the kitchen, both of them carrying 3 bowls of plain spaghetti. Now Frisk was thinking about, something was off about the spaghetti... Sans was fast asleep when the pair arrived.

"SANS! It's time to eat! You won't want to miss out on this wonderful dish that Frisk and the Great Papyrus have prepared!"

Sans slowly woke up and rubbed his eye sockets,

"of course not paps, your the coolest after all and i cant wait to taste what our new friend has to offer."

Friend. Used like that usually means something bad is going to happen. Maybe it wasn't the case with monsters.

Papyrus and Frisk laid out the bowls and each took a seat. And for some reason there was ketchup. Armed with forks, Sans and Papyrus immediately started to dig in whilst Frisk quietly gave a quick prayer.

"uh pal what are you doing?" Sans asked twirling a bit of spaghetti around his fork.

"Just... checking something that's all." That was a lie. Frisk dug in too. This was good spaghetti. But what would the others have to say?

Before Sans could continue pressing questions, Papyrus swooped in with his compliments.

"WOWIE! This is one of the best things I have ever tasted! You must have the best cooks in the world!"

"yeah this is pretty good, "Sans added "though i think it needs a little sauce of some kind. i need to ketchup with my schedule after this."

The sauce. Of course, how could they have forgotten about the sauce!?"

Sans reached for the ketchup bottle and took a swig from it before pouring some on his spaghetti. Frisk was stunned; who the hell drinks ketchup from a bottle?

"SANS! Can you not even refrain yourself from making puns whilst we're eating with a guest!"

Clearly not.

Finishing off their spaghetti, Frisk could see that both skeletons were pleased with their meal. But now she was wondering how on earth skeletons could even digest food. Clearly the food hasn't gone through them, so what happened to the food?

That wasn't important for now, just another issue to be addressed later... probably.

"Alrighty then, I'll start clearing the table and do the washing up! Sans could you seek a blanket and a pillow for Frisk?"

"sure thing paps."

Frisk got up from the table, assuming that she would be following Sans to find a blanket of some sort. However Sans was nowhere to been seen.

"done paps."

Frisk turned to the sofa and Sans was standing next to the sofa with a thick blanket and pillow. Frisk was blown away; How? Where? How where did he do that?"

"SANS! Could you seriously not just walk instead of using your 'shortcuts'!?"

"as i said, i've been worked down to the bo-"

"Don't say it!" Papyrus said exasperated from all of his brother's puns from today.

Shortcuts? They sounded more like teleportation. So Sans can teleport... somehow. Weird.

"Thanks for bringing a blanket over Sans."

"don't sweat it pal, i'll be heading off to bed too."

Frisk walked over to the sofa and laid the pillow and blanket over for a good night sleep.

"_**Well today was a success... if you don't count what happened earlier in the forest..."**_ Asriel cited with his optimism wavering at the last sentence.

Frisk looked back at Asriel as she got into be- uh climbed onto the sofa and pulled the blanket over. Shit. Frisk had forgotten about Undyne, but if anything to reassure her they would probably need to take Undyne to some sort of hospital for her injuries... if they had hospitals. That would probably give her some time to conjure up a plan and head to the Capital.

"I'm sure Undyne wouldn't have recovered by then... right?"

"_**Maybe..."**_ Asriel answered tapping his chin **_"I might have an idea as to how to traverse the Kingdom unnotice-"_**

"Alrighty I've finished clearing and washing everything up!" Papyrus said with pride in his voice, "Do you want me to read you a story? It helps me get to sleep!"

Really? A Royal Guard being read stories? Frisk had to refuse his generous offer.

"I'll pass, thank you Papyrus."

"If that's what you want!" Papyrus responded as he took off his apron, revealing that he was wearing what seemed like a pair of pajamas.

Papyrus will never cease to surprise her.

"But I must know, when do you typically wake up? I must know this so I can make the best breakfast you will ever have, prepared by non-other than the Great Papyrus!"

Breakfast? Frisk didn't usually have breakfast. She thought she might aswell take on that opportunity.

"I'd said about 10-ish maybe...?" Frisk said with uncertainty. What time did this energetic skeleton usually wake up at?

"Well, at least that's 4 hours earlier than my brother usually wakes up," Papyrus responded, "Well, good night to you, it was great having you over, and thank you for teaching how to make this fabled 'Spaghetti'!"

"I should be the one thanking you Papyrus, not yo-"

"Nonsense!" Papyrus interrupted her, striking a heroic pose _again_, "It is my duty as a Royal Guard to help anyone in need, wherever it's someone in distress or if they just need a roof over their head for a night!"

Frisk wasn't going to argue with that. She now just wanted to sleep.

"Alright then. Night then!"

Papyrus gave a small wave headed up to his room. She waited until he entered his room to resume the conversation with Asriel.

"_**As I was saying, I think we should head for the library."**_

"The library? Why the library of all places?"

"_**I-it's not easy to explain, but I think their might be useful information... well about those earring at least."**_

Learning more of the power of the earring she was wearing did seem feasible and could prove useful, however the prospect that Undyne coming through Snowdin, going through every house, every building to get her revenge did not give her high hopes at all.

"But Undyne surely will be going through town looking for me. Wouldn't it just be wiser to start low until everything blows over?"

Frisk just realised the problems with what she just said; how long would the monsters stay panicked if they discovered that a human has emerged, coming to _bring destruction and murdering everyone in sight. _At least that's what she assumed would happen if they find Undyne missing an eye and a part of her head. How is Undyne alive again?

And her provisions wouldn't last her longer than a week; maybe if they didn't weigh her down with the damn book and countless other items she had in her bag she could have lasted a bit longer.

"_**Think the news would spread out about the... incident."**_ Asriel said giving his head a small scratch, **_"and the local library could help us and would server as a hiding place! I still remember a good hiding spot!"_**

How did he know about hiding places? Had the village really not change in that amount of time?

"Guess we'll have to go with that plan then..." Frisk said as she yawned, she really needed to catch some sleep.

Frisk got into a more comfortable position. For the first day it could have gone worse, far worse. At least she got to meet some very interesting characters.

"Night Asriel."

"_**Night Frisk."**_

Frisk started to drift off into sleep. For a first night sleep on the surface, she was considerably comfier than she ever was in the Underground.

Life was good... for now.


	5. Departure and new pastures

_Despite the honour of meeting him in person, she would have rather avoided going through the palace, but there was no turning back now._

_The palace itself wasn't immense in size and mostly just felt... empty and devoid of life; the walls the corridors and the rooms that they traversed were blank. Even with painting and proper furnishing the whole building would probably still feel weary and... dead. _

_The scientist and the pair of Guards stayed back, fearful of what was to come out of the King's unpredictable nature. They had warned her in advance._

_Frisk entered the throne room; the walls, the ground and even the throne itself were covered in thick vines with thorny roses of all colours, though mostly red to which Frisk thought it was an... odd choice. Even stranger that the plants managed to grow at such an extent with such little sunlight entering from the ceiling riddled with holes. But there laid the King of the Underground, bearing a dark red robe with white rims, his face hidden by the hood that came with it._

_The King slowly got up from his throne, from this point on it could be seen that he was extremely underweight and frail. Frisk saw that his hands were weak and skeletal as he slowly, ever so slowly approached her. A strange, disgusting stench appeared but didn't dare question it's origin._

"_How beautiful and splendid!" the King said as if he was talking to someone else in the room, "How beautiful and splendid... When I look upon our people, I know that my life's struggles have not been in vain!" he finished ranting with what looked like a genuine smile barely decipherable by his hood._

_Frisk did not respond, preferring to stay silent for the time being. Frisk could barely imagine what years- no centuries must have done to his mental and physical health, spending every second of his life to the monumental task of giving hope back to the people of the Underground with high ideals to follow. Yet no one dared point out his health issues. As far as anyone was concerned he was in perfectly good health, no question asked. _

_After all what would the Underground be without this great man? He had outlived everyone and anyone._

_The King then started to cough and gag violently; he covered his mouth with his hands, only to his horror, for they were covered in blood._

_Still he was in perfectly good health, no need to worry._

"_I j-just hope you never reached to my age..." the King muttered, stuttering a bit. "G-go to their capital! Yes! Go to their capital! And there you w-will find out for yourself what do to afterwards-ha-ha..." as he just barely finished his sentence, he broke down into laughter; the guards finally entered the throne room._

"_Frisk, come with us. It's time."_

_Frisk was more than eager to get a move on._

* * *

Frisk tossed and turned; it was morning, time for a new day, her second day on the surface. The sunlight shone directly into her face, blinding her. She shielded her eyes and yawned. It was one of the best sleeps she ever had. She wondered how comfy the beds were if she slept like a log on a plain sofa. The house was quiet, indicating her that the skeleton brother's were probably still asleep. Asriel was also nowhere to be seen to, maybe he too was sleeping... somehow.

She decided to have a poke about the house to try and know more about Sans and Papyrus, after-all she had nothing else to do at the moment and she wasn't tired enough to go back to sleep.

She got up from the sofa and immediately noticed that the dining table with only two plates of spaghetti. Not just spaghetti, but spaghetti... with tomato sauce. Frisk was quite impressed that Papyrus managed to cook on his own, seemingly taking her tips and guide to heart. The house didn't burn down at least.

But something bugged Frisk in the back of the head. How did he get the idea for the tomato sauce? To anyone it would have just seemed that Papyrus conjured up the idea on his own. She felt a bit stupid for even asking the question. But her curiosity got the better of her and went in the kitchen. She found the fabled book left open on a page she didn't recognised. At first Frisk was worried as to what Papyrus could've found inside, especially if it was anything not food related.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she discovered that Papyrus had just turned the next page over to find the recipe to make the tomato sauce for the spaghetti. Though why did he make only two plates of spaghetti?

Frisk found a dirty plate in the sink, signaling that Papyrus may had to leave in a rush and didn't have time to clean up. At least it was kind of him to prepare her and Sans breakfast.

Frisk walked back to the dining table. Just as she was about to sit down and wait for Sans to come-... teleport down she saw a portrait hanging on a wall alone. She could recognise the skeleton brothers easily with Papyrus towering over Sans (who still seems to have his trademark grin).

But a third figure, taller than even Papyrus, was dressed in what looked like a full black suit and a bow tie, alongside a cane and something resembling a black top hat. He also seemed to be resting each of his hands on the shoulders of Sans and Papyrus. His skeleton features resembled a lot like to that of an actual human adult. If it wasn't for his height, Frisk would've been convinced that this was some sort of experiment to give life to human skeletons gone wrong.

Who was he? And why was he wearing a suit and a damn top hat in a backward society like this?

She dismissed the questions as she found a fourth and final figure; dressed in a thick striped sweater they resembled a child, however, they were as tall as Sans so the issue off if they were really a child or not would probably never be resolved at a glance. After all Frisk didn't have a clue on how skeleton biology works. Though the stripped sweater they wore reminded her of others her age wearing such clothing to keep warm in the Underground, though the monster in question was a skeleton, so how that works was anyone's guess.

Upon closer inspection, it also looked like they were squinting, at what Frisk wasn't too sure and would most likely never know.

And who were they? If she had to guess, she would say they were most probably another sibling of the skeleton brothers.

"morning pal. you sleep alright?"

Ah, Sans is awake, just in time. His clothes were unchanged, meaning he probably slept in them too.

"I did actually, that has to be the comfiest sofa that's for sure."

She turned to see Sans sitting at the table, hands in his pockets as usual. She walked over and took a seat at the table.

"Also... where's Papyrus?"

"papyrus had to leave really early for some kind of drill or somethin'. he'll be back."

That makes sense. Frisk had mostly figured it out anyway but it was nice to know. The pair stayed in awkward silence.

"Don't you feel bonely sometimes if Papyrus has these 'drills'?" Frisk asked humorously."

"heh, good one pal." Sans said as he gave a wink and grab the ketchup. He took a swig and, to Frisk's relief, didn't mix it with the sauce.

Frisk followed suit and started to dig in. The spaghetti and sauce were stone cold, though she wasn't going to let a good meal like that go to waste, food was food after all.

"heh this is better with the intended sauce." Sans said as he too started eating the cold spaghetti. Maybe he couldn't tell hot from cold, after all he didn't have skin, how else could he feel temperature differences?

"_**Morning Frisk!"**_

And now Asriel was finally awake from his thousand-year slumber. Frisk tried to give a discreet wave.

"who are you waving to pal?"

Now she thought about it, she did probably look daft waving at nothing.

"I thought I saw someone I recognised that's all".

Seemed it was good enough for Sans as he went back to eating. Priorities after all. Asriel went to the window next to the door and looked out to occupy himself.

"Say..." Frisk said as she twirled the spaghetti on her fork, "If I'm trying to get to the Capital, is there anyone I should know who could be of assistance?"

Sans paused and tapped the table with his finger. For once it looked like he was actually trying to concentrate.

"if you're going through the swamps, you could try and meet up with the head royal scientist. as you've given my brother the power to make actual edible food i'm sure he would be more than enthusiastic to meet you and understand your ways." He finished off saying with a wink.

It seemed teaching his brother was the highlight of his week. Was there really nothing else to do on the surface, had they grown that bored? That or it could be just the fact Sans seemed to be the type to slack off and sleep. Nonetheless, she felt sceptical and worried about the scientist; was he going to be interrogative or laid back? Was he someone thirsty for knowledge or just content with things as they are?

Ironically, her train of thought actually made her more eager to meet this monster 'scientist'.

"Is he the really tall one on that painting?" Frisk asked out of curiosity. The figure looked like to be Sans and Papyrus's father of some kind.

"yeah that's him. we don't really see him that often as he practically lives in his lab."

A laboratory? On the surface? Was it built out of logs and stone like everything else in this town. Questions flood her head about how this society even functioned if they seemingly prioritised apparels and hats and not building materials or even electricity.

Sans and Frisk almost finished eating when Asriel turned with a worried look on his face.

"_**Frisk... you may want to look at this."**_

Frisk couldn't leave to go and investigate without having finished her meal, that would be rude.

"Is there something going on outside Sans?"

"not to my knowledge no."

Frisk felt inclined to check for herself anyway, no matter table manners; Sans was too lazy to go and investigate anyway and from the way Asriel said it seemed to be urgent.

Looking through the same window as Asriel, a large gathering of monsters swarmed around what looked like a royal guard in full armour desperately trying to calm the crowd down. Had they heard of what happened to Undyne? If so she really needed to get a move on. Now.

"Thanks for letting me stay the night Sans, but I really need get going if... that's alright with you."

Sans raised his non-existent eyebrow as he finished off his last spaghetti string; Frisk now feared that Sans would question her immediate desire to leave. After a brief moment, Sans responded with a simple answer.

"sure thing pal. don't forget if you need to stop by then go to the lab."

That went far, far better than expected. Too well in fact. Frisk had noticed that Sans was extremely lenient in his questions, never pressing too far into a specific question. Wasn't he suppose to be a judge of some kind? If so he probably wouldn't make a very good one... if he was awake at least that is.

Frisk helped Sans clear the table and, this time, remembered to bring the book with her. She stuffed it in the bag and carried it over to the front door. She put her hand on the doorknob, hesitant to twist it.

"what's wrong pal?" Sans asked with concern, "don't have the guts?"

A brief moment of silence passed, with Frisk quickly breaking it.

"Sans... that pun only really works on skeletons."

"true, but that won't stop me from tryin'." Sans said scratching the back of his head.

"Sans, how can I ever repay for you and your brother's generosity?" It felt too real, there had to be some sort of catch right.

"just... stay out of trouble alright? make both our lives easier."

Frisk nodded and twisted the doorknob. Asriel was already outside looking at the crowd that had grown a bit. She stepped into the outdoor and waved goodbye as she turned to close the door. Sans had already disappeared. Typical.

Her second day on the surface had begun.


	6. Sneakiness

Her second day on the surface. Surely it could only go up from there?

Having spent the night with the skeleton brothers, she actually looking forward to her second day on the surface. Next on her list was the library. However, it started to snow. A lot. Frisk was already lucky enough to keep her toes from falling off in the cold, she would need to hurry before snow reached well above her knees.

"So, where's the library Asriel?"

_**"Follow me! It's this way!" **_Asriel responded as he had already moved on.

Frisk didn't comply as she was already presented with quite a serious issue; the evergrowing mob of monsters. Reinforcements had arrived for the sole guard but to no avail, the disgruntled monsters wanted answers.

"What happened to Undyne...?"

"How badly did she get hurt...?"

"Was she attacked...?"

The situation looked dire and Frisk, understandably, didn't fancy slithering her way through such an unruly crowd. Asriel turned back and his eyes darted to the side; he had no clue what to do or suggest. They were both stuck. Well, until a few moments later a familiar voice was heard.

"Do not worry fellow citizens! The Great Papyrus comes with great news!"

Papyrus. If anyone had the charisma to calm down an unruly crowd it would be him. Frisk had a gut feeling telling her to move on and hide, but she wanted to stay and hear what Papyrus had to say. Maybe he would even be able to convince all the monsters to go back to their everyday routines.

"Undyne is recovering just fine! But her aggressor is still on the loose! Luckily for us, _after she had a nice bowl of spaghetti prepared by none other than the Great Papyrus!... _She was able to give us a complete description of the assailant!"

The monsters were visibly confused by the 'bowl of spaghetti', but otherwise seemed to calm down. Papyrus then pulled out a parchment and cleared his throat. Just as he began to read it, Frisk legged it, going in the opposite direction of her original destination. She wasn't sticking around to see what would happen.

"Ideas Asriel! Have you got any?" ,Frisk asked as she began to slow down when she realised she was on the fringe of the town. Asriel shook his head and Frisk too hadn't an idea on how to assess the situation either. Frisk figured that after Papyrus had read out her description, everyone would be on high alert, and consequently, she would stick out like a sore thumb. How many other 'light skin toned, brown-haired, red eyes' monsters were there? None as it seemed most of the monsters, including the crowd and the guards, were everything imaginable but human; some possessed feathers whilst others had fur.

"Do we really need to go to the damn library Asriel?" Frisk asked hoping they could possibly avoid the whole ordeal.

"_**Yes... Yes I do! I know for sure the information we can gather is of the most utmost importance!"**_

Frisk sighed, Asriel seemed really convinced by what he said, but the whole town was now off limit... unless if she could distract the monsters somehow...

That's when Frisk had an idea.

"Asriel! I'm going to need your help." She said as she plopped down her bag and rummaged through it to get what she wanted for her plan.

"_**As long as it doesn't involve more unnecessary violence, I'm all for it."**_

She figured it as much. Asriel was a pacifist, that was something Frisk wasn't ever going to get around, but what she had planned wasn't _necessarily_ violent anyway. Frisk pulled out a big glass bottle of clear liquid and a handkerchief _they_ had packed for her_._ She was most certainly going to catch a cold later on and regret this, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made in order to advance.

She opened the bottle and stuffed the end of the handkerchief in the bottleneck. Asriel was unclear on Frisk's plan but just decided to roll with it; there was little he could do and had no idea of his own anyway.

"Right, I'm going to need you to do the... uh _thing_ and help me create just a tiny flame. Got it?"

Asriel nodded, and as he slowly vanished, Frisk began to feel the familiar cool, healthy sensation as the green streaks reappeared on her limbs. She was starting to become a bit too attached to the feeling. She hoped she wouldn't suffer some sort of withdrawal later on if she didn't get her 'fix' regularly.

Now with all her concentration, she attempted to summon a small flame at the tip of her finger, this time it was a success even though it took a bit of time to fully form. She figured that it was easier to summon a tiny flame compared to a fireball twice the size of her hand.

Frisk lit the handkerchief that was partially stuffed in the bottle, threw it on the closest wooden house's roof, and ran as fast as she could to the opposite house. The bottle went of with a smash and the entire roof caught fire. Asriel was absolutely horrified by what he had helped do.

"_**Frisk! You said this wouldn't end up violent!"**_

And that blasted headache came back. Hopefully, in the library she could find information on willingly pushing Asriel out of the equation when it suited her. It was obvious that he could be extremely disruptive even if he was invaluable.

"And did anyone get hurt?" Frisk retorted as she caressed the side of her head.

As Asriel gave Frisk a disapproving glare, the fire spread and very quickly and had it's desirable effect; the swarm of monsters now rushed over to the site of the burning house including the royal guards. Frisk could now hear the cries of the monsters.

"What this the work of Undyne's attacker...!?"

"What if they burn the whole town...!?"

"Who would do such a thing...!?"

The guards were right behind them and Papyrus had beads of sweats dripping of his skull and they must probably didn't come from the heat. Frisk figured that he probably realised that he had been helping none other than his superior's attacker and not only that, was capable of 'devastating' fire magic. Frisk was actually interested to see how he would pull him and the rest of the guards out of the situation. But there was no time for that, it was time to move on.

Frisk came out of hiding and dashed as fast as possible with Asriel following behind. On her to the library, it became deadly silent and the streets were deserted. Frisk concluded that all the monsters were at the fire too busy panicking. Everything went to plan accordingly.

After a few moments, Asriel gave the command to stop.

"_**We're at the library! Or should I say, 'the librarby'!"**_

Librarby? Really? Could they not even spell the name of the building correctly?

Catching her breath from the running, she was now presented with the library. There really wasn't anything special about it, in fact, it just looked like every other building in the town. Well, with the exception that it had three windows upfront instead on the one the other buildings usually have. And the misspelling of course.

"_**Frisk, what was it that you threw... just out of curiosity."**_

"Spirit." ,Frisk responded flatly, "It was a bottle of spirit. I know it was a waste but I wasn't going to drink it and-" Frisk stopped as Asriel gave her an 'I've no idea what you're talking about' look. The monsters hadn't even invented spirits. Frisk didn't know whether to be relieved or conflicted about it.

"Never-mind, let's... just go in." She sighed as she pushed the door open.

It was time for a very, very long day of learning.


	7. Learning time

Closing the door, Frisk was greeted a green lizard looking monster behind some sort of librarian's desk.

"Welcome to the library. Yes, we know. The sign is misspelled."

"Then why don't you correct it?"

The monster answered, "We could. But I think it gives a certain charm to it. Do you know any other library's that have their sign misspelled?"

That sounded more like 'I can't be arsed to change it'. Maybe he and Sans knew each other, but he was right in that retrospect, Frisk didn't know any other 'librarby's'.

Despite feeling welcoming and homely at first like the skeleton brother's home, the whole thing felt and a looked liked a maze. It was filled with numerous bookcases that were densely packed with books of all different shapes and sizes. Frisk didn't even know where to begin. This was going to take a seriously long time.

"Are the floors or bookcases organised in any way?"

"No. No not really. I asked Sans to help me put the books away neatly arranged and in an organised fashion."

"And...?" Frisk insisted, although dreading to hear the answer knowing that they were talking about Sans.

"He did put the books away. But they're all over the place. He was too busy getting drunk when I realised it. Since then he was 'occupied' with various other tasks to sort it out."

Typical. Of course when she needed vital information from the library someone had indirectly made it harder for her. And why couldn't the librarian do it himself? Dismissing the thought, Frisk feared that she was going to starve to death before she could find anything useful in the vast maze of bookcases. That is if she didn't get lynched by Undyne or the mob outside.

Frisk sighed and pressed on. She went to a random bookcase and took out a book.

"_**72 uses for snails! That looks like a good read!" **_Asriel said with a gleam in his eyes.

"Really? I wouldn't have thought anthropomorphic goat creatures would be into snails." Frisk said semi-jokingly.

"_**Oh! They're the best! Especially in a pie with lots of onions, garlic and the shells of the snails! It gives it crunch whilst savouring it!"**_

Frisk gave Asriel a weird look; she wasn't disturbed by eating snails, but putting them in a pie? Really?

"Well that's book number one," she said as she slid the book back from where it came from. She then took book number two; the title was so long the cover was filled to the brim with letters in tiny print.

"_**The history and inner functions of souls in both humans and monsters and the repercu-"**_

"Stop." Frisk interrupted not wanting to spend who knows how long Asriel to reciting the title, "I'm guessing this a book on souls, correct?"

Asriel nodded and Frisk kept the book under her forearm. She then figured that if she was going to start amass books she would probably need some kind of table to store her books. She was in luck; just up ahead was a clear space with a table with chairs surrounding it, though a small group of monsters were occupying it. She needed to devise a _cunning _plan to disperse them.

As she reluctantly approached them, she noticed that said table was littered with pictures, pages filled with writing and... what looked like crosswords?

"...and I say we should fill the pages with crosswords! Nothing happens in this town anyway." said one of the monsters.

"Looking for awe-inspiring stories?" Frisk interjected with a plan in mind.

"No thanks. That won't be necessary, crosswords are the wa-"

"No wait! Tell us more!" said another monster with enthusiasm. The crossword crazed monster rolled their eyes and sighed whilst gesturing for Frisk to continue.

"How about this; Crazed monster sets fire to innocent bystander's house."

The monsters eyes widened, and even Asriel gave Frisk a glare. Maybe she had gone too far with that title...

"I don't believe a word of that." said one of the monsters.

"Who and... why would anyone set someone's house ablaze?" asked another.

"I've no clue, maybe it was poor usage of matches or a monster came thro-".

"Could it have been the monster that attacked Undyne?" one interrupted.

The entire group fell silent and looked at each other. Frisk just sat back and watched it as it played out. As long as she could shift blame and give false clues, it was a win-win for her. She no longer had to partake as the monsters were frantically trying to decipher what happened;

"Undyne got attacked?"

They didn't hear about Undyne? That's poor journalism right there.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Never mind that! But if that's the case..."

"Where did they come from...?"

"Does that mean..."

"Was it a boss monster...?"

The group fell silent again, as Asriel and Frisk just waited for the whole ordeal to pass. Everything was going according to plan.

"I mean it could've only been a boss monster if it was fire magi-"

"If I were you, I would go outside and speak with the others and the royal guards outside. I'm sure they would be more than happy to give insight on what happened." Frisk calmly explained.

The monsters looked at each again and nodded. They all grabbed their writing materiel and dashed for the exit. Frisk was then left with the table all to herself.

"_**I hate to say this, but I've got the feeling that everything you just said is going to come back to haunt you..."**_

"Don't worry, I'll think of something if that situation ever comes." Frisk replied as she sat down and opened the book to a random page.

"_**Love, hope, compassion... This is what people say monster SOULS are made of. But the absolute nature of "SOUL" is unknown. After all, humans have proven their SOULS don't need these things to exist..."**_

"Hold up! I feel like I can take offence to that." Frisk stated clearly annoyed at the author. Obviously it was a monster who wrote it but Frisk didn't think that they would have been this oblivious to the true nature of humans. Had humans only shown their most despicable side during the war? Or was it just a ruse to further demonise her people?

Asriel just looked at Frisk blankly, not knowing what to say. Humans not needing love, or hope or even compassion? Ridiculous. Or so Frisk thought...

* * *

_With each passing day, decadence took hold of more and more people, destroying morality and integrity. For they said that their purpose was empty, they was no reason to carry on, that being guided by an empty promise of freedom there was no ground to have faith any more. It had been centuries, perhaps maybe even a millennium since they had been plunged into eternal night, with no real prospects of freedom. No real platform were given to speak about change in the Underground. It was and still is unnecessary, and sacrifices have to be made for a brighter future anyway._

_Thus a new badly needed policy was introduced to combat the threat; hunting down the dissents and make an example of them. In times like this, drastic measures had to be taken. Why? Simply said, where would we be if it was not for him and his ideals? However, it always seemed to end in a bloodbath, no matter what he did. Blood would be spilt and the streets ended up becoming eerily quiet and empty. And yet many people still acted pessimistically after all he had done. Were they just ungrateful? Was he doing something wrong?_

_He felt lost and angry. Ironically, he himself, had lost most of his humanity, trying to save his people..._

* * *

Time passed. How much exactly? Frisk asked herself that question, however there were no clocks around. And they were on...

Book number 14.

And suspiciously, the whole place was quiet... too quiet. Frisk got up to quickly check if the librarian was still at their desk. Gone. Frisk figured that they probably left for lunch and that they would then got caught up with what was going on outside. One less thing to worry about later on, that's for sure. But Frisk felt like they were going nowhere and leaving the library wasn't an option for obvious reasons. She returned to see Asriel reading another book.

"Anything useful?"

_**"No... no not for the moment..."**_

Frisk sat back down and rubbed her ear that bared the earring. Now that she had all the time in the world to think, she began to ponder on what to do afterwards. 'Free us', 'Pave the way for mankind' and 'Destroy the barrier' ran through her head. It was nice and all for them to say that to her, but how? Frisk barely understood how she alone managed to pass through a magical wall that supposedly stopped any being with a soul from traversing, so how was she going to break it? Maybe it was a good call for Asriel to spend an entire day here... even though nothing of use has come up yet.

Frisk had dumped a load of books open to a random page in a neat order for Asriel to read whilst she would go and fetch some more. She would also turn the pages of any book Asriel thought to be useful. This however would drag on and make Frisk more and more frustrated as her companion would in actual fact find nothing of value, wasting their time and energy... well her energy.

While fetching reading material, she assumed that if the book had what looked like an extremely long title and was exceedingly heavy that it could prove useful. She would then take the books that didn't take the cut and started to stack them up high. It was slow process but it worked nonetheless.

_**"I've found one on history if you're interested."**_ Asriel asked sheepishly.

Frisk would have been opposed to any kind of history books, but _she_ was the one who picked out the book and they weren't in a hurry, so she gave Asriel the go ahead. Maybe she would actually learn something besides snails, gardening and hot dogs.

_**"Humans, despite their physical forms giving the upper hand in raw combat and physical strength, were quarrelsome, divisive and unruly. After multiple fought battles, the humans were pushed back to the cave of Mt. Ebbot and, with the power of seven human souls, the King of all monsters forever banished the humans underneath Mt. Ebbot."**_

As Asriel finished reading, he just stood there, motionless. Frisk guessed that finally realising that your King was a murderer most probably didn't give a nice feeling. 7 humans? He probably enjoyed every second of it. But all of this did give Frisk an idea; if it took seven human souls to put up the barrier, maybe it also took the same number of souls to break it.

Where the hell was she suppose to find seven humans souls laying about?

* * *

Book number... 41?

Still no progress. By now Frisk was started to become agitated and increasingly annoyed, from all this time just going backwards and forwards fetching reading material for Asriel. She had discovered that Asriel was very much an avid reader and claimed that, if he could, would happily spend all his time in the librarby. The librarian still hadn't come back, but for Frisk there was no reason to care.

On her way back from fetching books, she had noticed one that possessed a sword and shield on it. So obviously Frisk picked it up, presented it to Asriel and opened it on a random page.

"_**Uh, Frisk? I don't see how that helps us..."**_

"I couldn't care less, and besides maybe it has a page on 'earring stuff'." She said with her eyes shifting to one side. That was a lie. Frisk had a quick peek at it and knew it had to do with combat and fighting. What she said was probably going to be the only way to convince Asriel to read it. He had a quick look and read out:

"_**Because they are made of magic, monsters bodies are attuned to their SOUL. If a monster doesn't want to fight, it's defences will weaken. And the crueller the intentions of our enemies, the more their attacks will hurt use. Therefore, if a being with a powerful SOUL struck with the desire to kill..."**_

A brief silence past. Why did Asriel stop in the middle of his track?

"What's the hold-up? I didn't say stop reading."

"_**Um, I'll just end the chapter here..."**_

That's a bummer. Frisk was disappointed but knew that there was no way she could force Asriel to read the rest of the sentence. But she guessed what was the rest of the story. If a powerful being struck with a desire to kill, they could kill or do irreversible damage. Now she thought about it, Undyne must have been REALLY determined to fight for her to still be alive...

* * *

Book number... 68...? 86? She'd lost count. But by now she was on her way to building an impressive fort made of books. Books put into good use, she thought. Still no sign of the librarian or the group of monsters Frisk had convinced to go outside. She quickly peered and saw that it was now late-ish afternoon and that the streets were still empty. By then she decided to properly inspect her bag and equipment because she had nothing else of interest to do. Frisk pulled out one last bottle of spirit, the 'forbidden knowledge filled book', an envelope, extra ammunition, her map and... a box of cigars? They didn't even include a lighter! Not that was a problem now of course but still...

Other than rations, that was everything she could find. She seriously started to question the mental health of the individual who was in charge of packing her things. Cigars and more spirits? She figured that some monsters probably smoked and drank from when the skeleton brothers left the pub as alcohol and tobacco could be smelled. Favours could maybe be made she thought.

And Asriel was still veraciously reading everything under his _nose? Snout?_ She took the opportunity to also pull out her pistol and inspect it for damage or any kind of degradation. White chalk-like dust covered the barrel. That wasn't good. As she cleaned it with a bit of cloth, Asriel turned to see the pistol, the very same pistol that had manage to bring down someone as mighty as Undyne.

"_**I didn't know some humans could use bullet magic, but yours is quite effective... and dangerous."**_

"Bullet magic? You're pulling my leg now right?"

Asriel gave her a serious look and Frisk immediately knew he wasn't joking. Bullet magic? This had to be a joke surely.

"Next thing your telling me is that monsters gift each other some sort of 'trick magical bullet birthday card' or something."

Asriel's look remained unchanged. She had heard of trick candles, but bullet cards? And Asriel called her 'bullet magic' dangerous?

After a short moment of silence, Asriel returned to his task and Frisk packed away her belongings; she held the bottle and seriously thought about drinking it, but convinced herself that it would just be a waste. She wasn't cold and still had work to do, no time to end up like the librarian or Sans.

* * *

Book number...

It was nearly night. Despite being plunged into near darkness, Asriel was still seemingly able to read. Frisk fought the urge to sleep; they had to be close to the corresponding book, right? Right?

Slumped over and resting her head on the table, she now wondered how she passed the barrier. She was told that it was impossible without possessing great power. Apart from being able to heal her wounds and make fire on the tip of her fingertips at will, there wasn't much to talk about, not much compared to her king. She did recall back to the encounter with Undyne where her SOUL was pulled out and visible. She figured out that the piece of Asriel, seemingly trapped inside, was to be the source of the magical powers, not her. Maybe it was Asriel who facilitated her crossing the barrier... Now it was too late to ask anything.

"_**I think I've found something!"**_

Asriel turned to look only to see Frisk fast asleep. He didn't want to wake her up, but also didn't want to take her by surprise. The book on which Asriel found the potential information recognised it as the one the Head Alchemist possessed back when he was properly alive. It had taken a severe beating and time was not kind to it. In fact he even considered it lucky that none of the pages were missing or didn't get beaten by Frisk's rough hands. Time really had moved on from when he passed...

Dismissing the thought, he acted on the vague instructions. He wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen, but it was worth a shot. He used what power he had and sure enough, it seemed to start with the desire effect.

Frisk suddenly shot up, confused at first to why the room around was green. She had looked down and saw the green streaks back. But something was wrong. Something was happening under her skin. She looked up to Asriel, but found herself unable to speak. She clutched her throat whilst Asriel watched on with horror unknowing what to do.

Then Frisk collapsed. She wasn't responding to Asriel cries or woes. Semi-reassuringly, she still appeared to be breathing, but that was the only sign of life coming from her.

Then the unthinkable happened as Asriel could just merely observed. As Frisk started to _change_... He reassured himself that it was just temporary as he loathed the moment of Frisk waking up. He was not looking forward to the upcoming talk.


	8. New-found abnormality

"_What's happening now?" Frisk asked, knowing that it should be prime time for customers._

"_Another one fell down. Third time in the last couple of months, though I doubt there will be anything left when they're finished with it as usual."_

_Frisk was helping out in a local pub to make some extra cash, cleaning glasses, wiping the tables clean and so forth. She did get to know some frequent visitors, and they knew much more about what was going on around than she did. She had heard of several holes in the celling of the Underground for which were the sole sources of light. Apparently a small group of monsters falling in was a once in a lifetime event, so she and everyone else down in the Underground had the wonderful luck and privilege of giving them a 'nice' greeting._

_Now she though about it, going there was banned unless the King wanted to organise a special event. She figured the guards were pretty tired of everything too and made exceptions on the spot. They probably needed to lash out against something too to let some steam out. Seems when you have a common enemy everyone will join up together. It made a change a least._

"_I was wondering why today seemed to be a bit quiet..."_

"_Well, I'm sure they're going to arrive in any second now..." the man replied finishing his drink in one gulp._

_Not a moment too soon, a load of people stumbled in; Frisk assumed that their shift ended long ago and that they just finished having their 'fun'. They were covered in coal and soot from the day of work and for some reason, their arms and hands were coated in chalk dust. They would smear the tables and stools with it which mildly annoyed her as it would mean additional cleaning; she could deal with the coal and soot, but the chalk was much harder to clean for some reason. But why chalk of all things?_

"_This one was an ugly bugger, I'll tell you that!"_

"_Feathers everywhere and a repulsive beak face if you could call it that! Makes a difference from the other two shites!" _

_Frisk was actually curious on what monsters looked like as from what she heard about them, they seemed to be multiple different kinds of monsters. Unfortunately, the remains would probably just be dumped in the crevice or the incinerator after they had they finished giving their 'friendly' greetings._

_Often times, they would come back with extremely fine clothes and dresses that they must have pilfered from the scum of the surface that fell down. But strangely they were always... child sized; the only people that would even have a chance of fitting into them would be her younger siblings._

_She did wonder how monsters would have treated a human if the situation was inverted... Just the thought made her sick..._

* * *

The sun shone into the librarby, giving an air of warmth and lighting the inside. Asriel was waiting patiently for Frisk to wake up to no avail. He was dreading for what was to come, but he knew there was no avoiding it. He had already checked the windows to see if anything was happening outside. Empty. He was beginning to wonder what the other monsters were doing, as the morning it was the start of the day; School, work, leisure, fulfilment... stuff he couldn't take part in.

Ironically, a human was partially responsible for his demise, now he was counting on another human to save him. He did miss them dearly, but got over it mostly. However, the thought that his parents possibly still being alive weighed heavy on his heart. He longed to reunite with them. In the current circumstances, he couldn't of course. But there was _something_... odd about Frisk.

It made him quite uncomfortable to think about it, but there was no denying it; This human and the one he met and befriended much earlier on weren't that different. She still hadn't called a cry baby or anything like that... _yet._

"_**Frisk... please wake up, I..."**_

Asriel began to sob slightly, just the thought of her reaction of what he had done; he didn't want to be on bad terms with her on the rest of the adventure. Despite a few hiccups, he believed that they got along quite well together. Now most definitely was not the time to start hating one another.

_They... they would have loved that... They despised humanity..._

…

Asriel shook his head and pushed out any thoughts that were detrimental. Now wasn't the time to draw up comparisons again. So he just waited. And waited.

Just as Asriel was about got to sleep out of sheer boredom, slight shuffling could be heard. He raised his head a bit and saw Frisk slowly getting up from the ground. They groaned and rested their back on a bookshelf.

"_**Frisk! You're awake!"**_

Initially Frisk didn't answer, probably too busy trying to properly wake up, but eventually she slowly turned her head towards him. She looked extremely drowsy, and looked like she was about to fall back to sleep.

"What time is it?" Frisk asked sluggishly. The night was uncomfortable in comparison to the sofa she slept on the previous night. Though she didn't feel cold at all from the lack of a blanket or even basic heating, despite it being supposedly winter.

"_**It's morning, that's for sure..."**_

Frisk looked at the window to see sunshine entering into the library. The natural light seemed to give everything it touched a feeling of warmth and welcomeness. Now she had multiple examples to draw a comparison from, everything down underground just looked bland and depressing without it. The omnipresence of natural light was comforting and she thought that she wouldn't ever be able to come to terms with it; how the monsters ever got use to it was beyond her. Even the two areas under where sunlight could freely enter just felt... creepy and ominous.

But something felt off... Frisk couldn't quite put her finger on it. Literally. The last thing she remembered was being chocked until she blacked out. And Asriel was seemingly acting all innocent, looking at the ground and avoiding eye contact. He most definitely guilty of something, but Frisk figured that it would only be a matter of time; Asriel was already awful at hiding his guilt.

As she was about to push herself up with her hands, she realised that in fact, she no longer possessed hands, but instead something more akin to paw like hands, covered in brown fur. Having just woken up, Frisk figured that she was either still dreaming or hallucinating or something. She still felt though she had to check, just in case.

The librarby was devoid of any mirrors, so she practically dragged herself over to the nearest window for the next best thing and looked on with absolute horror. At first she didn't recognised herself, believing that she was looking at some sort of 'magical mirror', but it was real, all of it was; she had lost herself and was replaced with something grotesque and inhuman.

Where there was once a sweet smile was now replace with a snout with fangs protruding at the end. Where there was once delicate and perfect hands were now swapped, as mentioned, with something that resembled more like paws of an animal. Where there was once pale skin now gave way to brown fur covering her from top to bottom and a pair of floppy ears now rested on the side of her head.

Asriel. Asriel had done this to her. This was why he was acting all innocent. She turned to look at Asriel only to find him cowardly hiding behind his ears he had brought up to his eyes. They hadn't gone through much, and there was a time or two when things were bumpy, but this went too far. Too far.

So that's why she blacked out; Asriel wanted to inflict her as much pain as possible onto her for hurting Undyne and burning down the house. After all, what else could've been the reasoning? Cruelty? What was to be gained really? Why did he have to turn her into... _him _of all things?

"Explain. Now." Frisk said flatly in an aggressive tone. She knew she couldn't physically harm Asriel, but that didn't mean she was going to spare him. Frisk was going to hold him accountable until the day of her demise. She couldn't even bare to imagine what her people would think of her if they saw her in this twisted form.

"_**I... Its... Think of it as a... disguise. It's just temporary... it will wear off. Please forgive m-me..." **_Asriel managed to stutter before breaking down, sobbing.

A disguise? That wasn't a terrible idea actually, what with the bounty she's got on her head now for her self defence and arson to distract the monsters. And if it's just temporary... it might actually just be perfect. Perfect in every way possible.

Asriel had looked upon Frisk for any sign of forgiveness. Frisk... didn't want to but she had to admit that Asriel had probably saved her getting her head getting put on a pike. Silence followed, quickly broken by Frisk who had managed to calm down a bit, coming to grips with reason.

"Next time warn me before you decide to randomly cut my vital functions for a 'grand plan'! And don't think I'll forget this anytime soon!"

Asriel didn't answer, but Frisk knew he got the message. So the summarize it up... she was transformed into a monster by a monster, taking on a form related of the caster. This wasn't part of her plan originally but now she would just have to go with it. But all of this just felt so wrong.

…

She dismissed her thoughts and moved onto more pressing issues; the everyday monsters she saw in the streets would undoubtedly not see anything suspicious, but others like Papyrus, Sans and Undyne would probably recognise her clothes. It wouldn't give everything up, but it would deal a whole load of suspicion. It didn't help she was only packed with her current sent with no spare to be seen. The only thing she could think of was to turn her current clothes inside out and ditch the obvious leather attire; the colours would take on a much darker tint and stand out more. Alongside with the ditched attire, said monsters shouldn't be able to draw any kind of comparisons at all.

So without prior warning, she stripped to do the aforementioned. Asriel, not being told of Frisk's plan, turned around and went red. How could she do something like that, in the library no less. What if someone entered while she was undressing? Luckily no one came and she was quick to dress up again. He really wanted to ask why, but was still feeling guilty over what he had done; he just stayed silent.

Meanwhile Frisk had noticed that her new fee-... paws have shredded through her boots. She didn't like the idea of walking in the snow with no footwear, but she didn't have any replacement boots, let alone ones that could fit her now. She still had the earring on one of her new long floppy ears which just made it more obvious that she was missing one, which just made it look even sillier.

She had long tail with a tuft of fur at the end had formed; it seemed to have punctured a hole through her trousers. It felt quite uncomfortable and seemed to act as an additional limb. She would just have to be careful not to sit on it whenever she would take a seat. But Asriel had a tuft of fur acting as a tail, why did she have a long one?

That was the least of her worries, she still needed to find the exact location of the scientist that Sans mentioned. 'In the swamp' was not the most helpful advice, maybe Papyrus could help. That is if he's somehow saved himself from the wrath of Undyne. Undyne was going to be in an extremely foul mood if she was up and about.

Just as Frisk was tightening her belt and gathering her belongings to depart, she heard someone trying to open the lock of the door with a key. However the door was already unlocked, and the person seemed to become increasingly impatient. So Frisk opened the door and none other than the librarian himself walked in... well more like barely keeping his balance. He reeked of alcohol and smoke as he held a small bottle in his hand and started to talk, but slurred his words; he was incomprehensible and Frisk feared he was going to attract attention onto themselves. This wasn't going to do and he was starting to get on her nerves anyway. She walked up to the librarian and gave him an almighty slap. He fell to the ground with a thud and nothing more came from him.

Just as Asriel was about to raise his voice, Frisk gave him deathly gaze. He retreated, not saying anything but still clearly objected to what he had just witness. He had already caused her enough trouble, he wasn't going to pile it on any more for now.

In the mean time, Frisk had found a white chalk like substance staining her brown furred hand. It was dust, like that from Undyne. She didn't kill the librarian, but she still seemed to have used excessive force even by her standards. That or the librarian was extremely fragile. At least he hadn't turned to dust as that would have been extremely inconvenient to cover up. Though now she thought about it...

She started rummaging through the librarian pockets to find anything of use. Normally she would usually opposed to stealing and looting, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. Apart from a pair of replacement glasses and a smoking pipe of all things, she had actually found a handful of gold coins. Hopefully the monster won't notice that he's missing some money from him; his intoxication alongside the slap should do the trick. She then dragged him behind the librarian's desk and making sure she had properly cleaned the dust of her stained hand. There were still a few marks, but that would just have to do.

Frisk did have one last quick peek out the window to see if many monsters were out and about. It was starting to become a tad busy, and from across the street she recognised many of the monsters as the ones who worked on reporting and writing stories from yesterday. And they seemed to have set up some sort of stall and selling what looked like newspapers with big bold letters printed on front. Had they really taken her story to heart? Frisk turned to Asriel, only to see a face that said 'I told you so'. Great, so now she would have to deal with the local press and whatever her story may have transformed into.

She sighed. She would have to be more creative and constructive in what she says from now on. She double checked the librarby to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything and opened the door. She left feeling like a completely different person, still not quite used to her new form. It was extremely uncomfortable but she would just have to deal with it, after all it was just temporary and it would be for the greater good.

Now she would just have to face whatever mess she had put herselfl in.


End file.
